JOHN NAPIER
( 1550 - 1617 )
Today we are all living in computer age. Logarithms are not much in vogue. But at one time even in 20th century for difficult mathematical calculations logarithms were the base. The concept of Logarithms was introduced by the British mathematician John Napier.
Napier was born in 1550 at Merchiston castle near Edinburgh. He entered the university of St.Andrews at the age of 13. But he left it early without obtaining a degree. He returned to his native after he traveled abroad. He married in 1572 but his wife died in 1579. Again he married.
In 1593 he wrote a book on the Church of Rome. In the book he had boldly said that the Popes of Church would destroy the world between 1688 and 1700. The book saw twenty one editions of which ten editions were sold during his life time.
He invented Napier Rod an instrument used for addition, subtraction and calculating, square roots. In 1593 he started working on logarithms. He prepared tables of natural logarithms; that is, logarithms to base ‘e’. These were later modified by Henry Briggs by using the number 10 as the base.
Napier did research on trigonometry. He contributed to the development of spherical trigonometry.
Description of Marvelons Canon of Logarithms (1614) and construction of the Marvelons Canon of logarithms (1620) are the two treatises published by Napier. Logarithm tables help students a method for speedy calculation.
Napier died on 4 April 1617 in his native place.
Today we are all living in computer age. Logarithms are not much in vogue. But at one time even in 20th century for difficult mathematical calculations logarithms were the base. The concept of Logarithms was introduced by the British mathematician John Napier.
Napier was born in 1550 at Merchiston castle near Edinburgh. He entered the university of St.Andrews at the age of 13. But he left it early without obtaining a degree. He returned to his native after he traveled abroad. He married in 1572 but his wife died in 1579. Again he married.
In 1593 he wrote a book on the Church of Rome. In the book he had boldly said that the Popes of Church would destroy the world between 1688 and 1700. The book saw twenty one editions of which ten editions were sold during his life time.
He invented Napier Rod an instrument used for addition, subtraction and calculating, square roots. In 1593 he started working on logarithms. He prepared tables of natural logarithms; that is, logarithms to base ‘e’. These were later modified by Henry Briggs by using the number 10 as the base.
Napier did research on trigonometry. He contributed to the development of spherical trigonometry.
Description of Marvelons Canon of Logarithms (1614) and construction of the Marvelons Canon of logarithms (1620) are the two treatises published by Napier. Logarithm tables help students a method for speedy calculation.
Napier died on 4 April 1617 in his native place.
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